The landscape of tax avoidance and bank secrecy in offshore tax havens changed due to individuals who blew the whistle on private offshore banking practices.
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We'll end the tax secrecy because we can't have a situation where we don't know how much tax people are paying against how much profit they're making.
These two characteristics, when combined, create an index of secrecy jurisdictions, or tax havens if you prefer, called the Financial Secrecy Index.
The German and American governments are leading an attack on bank-secrecy laws in tax havens.
The case of Wegelin is a stark one: a bank that first opened its doors in 1741 has had to close because it used the long tradition of Swiss banking secrecy to help clients avoid tax.
Switzerland, long a tax haven for the wealthy and a nation with once inflexible banking laws regarding secrecy, has one of the lowest marginal tax rates on working people, at 20%.
The report also takes aim at Liechtenstein's LGT Group, charging that the bank's practices contributed to a "culture of secrecy and deception" that encouraged tax evasion among some of its U.S. clients.
Tax havens are usually characterized by extremely low tax rates, strong banking secrecy laws and flexible regulations in terms of licensing, incorporation and supervision.
This would spell the end of Swiss banking secrecy and be a fatal blow to other tax havens.
These are the 10 most significant secrecy jurisdictions in the world, in the opinion of the Tax Justice Network: the U.S. (Delaware), Luxembourg, Switzerland, Cayman Islands, the U.K. (City of London), Ireland, Bermuda, Singapore, Belgium and Hong Kong.
After the four-hour summit, Mr Cameron will travel to Paris to meet French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace where co-operation on tax evasion and avoidance as well as tackling corporate secrecy will again be on the agenda.
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Many believe the Swiss government is trying to square an impossible circle: satisfy foreign governments, who are determined to reclaim their tax revenue, and still protect Switzerland's traditional banking secrecy.
If an individual falsifies his or her tax claim by concealing their income in offshore accounts, banking secrecy laws in countries like Switzerland have in the past helped to keep that income hidden by making it a crime for the banks and their employees to disclose information about clients.
In the latter referral, the Bank Secrecy Act fraud agent would be the referring and supporting agent in the criminal tax investigation.
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On Friday Germany signed a tax evasion treaty with Switzerland - another European banking centre known for its secrecy.
It is the country's reputation for ultra-secrecy that has kept the super-rich funneling their cash through it to other tax havens like Switzerland, where they can make their money grow in large banks.
"If people lose confidence in banking secrecy in Liechtenstein, then Liechtenstein is dead in the water, " said Richard Murphy of Tax Research, a British-based consultancy.
Twelve criteria were then selected as key indicators of opacity, varying from whether there was formal banking secrecy or not, to whether accounts were required to be on public record, to how many tax information exchange agreements the jurisdictions had.
They are now insisting that they will only agree to the plan if the EU also forces other tax havens in Europe - like Monaco, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland - to also amend their bank secrecy laws.
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